Talk:12 Monkeys (TV series)/@comment-85.131.70.212-20150212200829/@comment-5731479-20150213084845

Terry Gilliam's ego aside, the movie had several of its tenets chopped down or "dumbed down" for television. The movie is steeped in confusion and desperation, there are several problems whose resolution isn't necesasrily beneficial, the love interest wants to help the hero but can't (at first), the hero is on the wrong trail, the forces compelling the hero are unlikable and hard to trust, all the main characters are trying to do the sane thing but sometimes they don't know what is sane...

All of that and more cut, in favor of a classic good-vs-evil detective procedural show where every episode has a problem that is resolved by the hero. About all of the confusion and desperation are cleared up in the first and second episodes, and what's left is a stable hero from the future, a stable love interest in the present, a tough-but-motherly boss, and a mission-of-the-week against the creepy bad guy in the black hat.